FujiFilm’s Instax Mini Link 3 printer is a much-loved $100 accessory in my travel journal kit. I often tape a printed image next to my handwritten thoughts to preserve a moment in time. The prints produced by the instant film can, however, be soft and muddy — something the new $169.95 Instax Mini Link+ promises to improve.
Technology
The latest Instax printer is a pricey but worthy upgrade
The big upgrade is a new Design Print mode. It’s supposed to make text and intricate illustrations crisp and legible, but I didn’t see much of an improvement, despite that being a big selling point. I did, however, find that the improved processing inside the Mini Link+ enhanced contrast, colors, and sharpness, to reveal more details in a wide variety of photos, and I think that’s more important to most people.
From my testing, the new Mini Link+ is definitely an upgrade, but don’t expect this, or any instant film Instax printer to perform miracles, especially for images measuring just 62 x 46mm (2.44 x 1.81 inches).
$170
The Good
- Best Instax Mini printer yet
- Improved colors, sharpness, and contrast on most photos
- Fun for creatives
The Bad
- Little improvement on text heavy illustrations
- Expensive
- App is overwrought
FujiFilm’s Instax printers all use its Instax Mini instant film which typically costs around $30 for 20 sheets, or about $1.50 per photo. To print, you need to download the “Instax Mini Link” app available for both iOS and Android.
The app is overwrought with features that let you visualize your photos in real space with VR and use the printer as a remote camera shutter. It also helps you organize your images; imagine your prints in frames, on shelves, or as a collage taped to the wall; and prettify them with text, stickers, and filters. You can even connect your Pinterest account if you want. Fun, I suppose, but I’m not twelve-years old – I’m a full-grown man, damnit, and I just want to print photos in my iPhone’s photo library, and do it quickly!
To do that, I have to first import the image into the Instax Mini Link app, hit print, choose either the Simple or Design mode, then wait 20 seconds for the printout. Simple print promises “smooth color tones for everyday images” and produces softer images that, in general, are still an improvement over most anything the Mini Link 3 can print. Design mode is exclusive to the Mini Link+ and the reason you might want it.
I tested the different modes with a variety of images and generally found Design prints made on the Mini Link+ were superior for faces, landscapes, high contrast images, and macro shots of nature. Everything, really, other than text-heavy illustrations, where I saw no obvious improvement.
For example, look at my stupid face. Photos with intense lighting were susceptible to blowout when printed on the older Mini Link 3. The Simple and Design prints from the Mini Link+ handled the lighting better, with improved contrast, more detail in the eye, and more accurate colors and skin texture.
In the example above, everything in the Mini Link 3 print is super soft and blends together in a muddled mess. The Mini Link+ again offers improved contrast, with visible textures on the rock faces, tree branches, and improved colors throughout. The wooden slats on the barn, lines of individual trees, and wheel detail are more pronounced on the Design print, with less saturation on that big pine to the left.
Here, the Mini Link 3 struggles to depict the snow as anything but a white smear, while you can make out individual snowflakes and depth on the Mini Link+ Design print.
In this example, the Mini Link 3 really flattens the sky and removes the texture from the distant mountain. The greens and blues are more brilliant with the Simple and Design prints, while the separation between bits of gravel and blades of grass is more apparent in Design mode.
In this Spotify screenshot, Design mode sharpens the lettering and artificially enhances the white text with a black outline, most visible on the letters “a” and “s.” Simple mode doesn’t do this. The outlining does make the lettering pop.
I find surprisingly little difference between these illustrations printed by the Mini Link 3 and the Mini Link+, even in Design mode. Strange because this is where FujiFilm’s new printer is supposed to excel. Nevertheless, they all look good enough for hobbyists, and anyone looking to spice up a journal or decorate a room.
1/7
After printing 15 photos over the last few days, the battery on the Instax Mini Link+ is still at 80 percent. The battery charges over USB-C, and, if you’re in Europe, the FujiFilm NP-70S battery can be user-replaced when it no longer holds a charge.
From my testing, I think it’s clear that if you want the best photo quality available in an Instax printer, then the $169.95 Mini Link+ is the one to get. It also makes the case for being a worthy upgrade for some Mini Link 3 owners, so long as you’re not expecting improved prints of text-heavy illustrations.
But its price puts the Mini Link+ into direct competition with dye-sublimation printers like the Canon Selphy QX20 which yields prints that are sharp and accurate with better resistance to water and fading. Otherwise, the Mini Link 3 is still a great printer for the price, and the soft, moody images it prints is a vibe worth $100.
Photography by Thomas Ricker / The Verge
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Cecil Baldwin’s résumé includes appearances on Gravity Falls, narrating the documentary Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street, and performing as part of the New York Neo-Futurists theater company. But he is best known as the host of the podcast Welcome to Night Vale, a long-running fiction show that blends macabre Lovecraftian horror with absurdist comedy. As Cecil Palmer, the voice of Night Vale Community Radio, Baldwin keeps the people of the titular town abreast of all the goings ons with the Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home and offers tips on how to best maintain their Bloodstone circles.
He also cohosts Random Number Generator Horror Podcast No. 9 with Night Vale cocreator Jeffrey Cranor, recently directed the play As Sylvia and raises awareness for LGBTQ+ issues and HIV. In short — he’s a busy man. So we’re excited that he found some time to tell us about his tech pet peeves.
What is one thing you wish you could change about your phone?
I wish it were impossible to manually text and drive a vehicle at the same time. We are collectively way worse at it than we think.
What is your happy place online?
Adding books to my Favorite list on Amazon so I remember titles/authors, and then taking that list to my local new and/or used bookstore and buying them there.
Which tech trend do you wish would go away?
Please, I’m begging you, let me watch the credits of the film or television show in peace. I just finished a movie, you don’t need to roll me right into a whole new one. Let me digest for just a second.
What creation are you most proud of?
It would have to be the podcast Welcome to Night Vale, right? It was the acting role that changed the trajectory of my life.
What do you do when you’re feeling stuck?
I will literally say to myself “1, 2, 3, 4, 5…. Walk away.” It’s like an unbinding, spoken out loud when I don’t know how to move forward with a project or I’m stuck in a social media scroll-frenzy that is giving no pleasure. Put it down. Walk away. Focus on something else for a while.
What’s the last piece of physical media you bought?
Picked up a few albums at my local record store: Marianne Faithfull À la Télévision 1965-1967, Jorge Ben Jor Jorge Ben, and Dr John Gris-Gris.
What would the tagline for your biopic be?
Performing authenticity… for real.
What’s the last GIF or meme you used?
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You know that feeling. You cleared security, your flight isn’t boarding yet and now you are wandering the airport terminal. You are looking for a seat, an outlet or something to eat that does not feel ridiculously overpriced.
At Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, a new lounge wants to make that dead time feel a lot less dead. Portal Lounge, a new high-tech airport lounge from the founders of Gameway, opened May 28 at MSP.
It blends gaming, dining, music, interactive design and robot-made drinks into a social space built for travelers who want a better way to spend their time before boarding.
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UNUSUAL AIRPORT AMENITY GAINS TRACTION AS PART OF HEALTHY TRAVEL PUSH: ‘MAKES A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE’
Portal Lounge’s glowing entrance gives travelers at MSP a first look at its high-tech airport lounge concept. (Portal Lounge)
Portal Lounge brings high-tech travel to MSP
Portal Lounge comes from Jordan and Emma Walbridge, the entrepreneurs behind Gameway. Their airport gaming concept already operates across nine U.S. airports, with plans to reach 11 locations by the end of the year.
Portal Lounge takes that gaming idea and expands it into a broader hospitality experience. Instead of building another traditional lounge around silence and exclusivity, the founders designed a social space with energy, entertainment and technology at the center.
The lounge spans 3,800 square feet and can hold about 114 people. It features a portal-inspired entrance, cinematic lighting, art deco-inspired interiors, curated music, custom furnishings and social seating areas.
Gaming stations turn airport waiting into playtime
One of the biggest tech features is the gaming setup. Portal Lounge includes 17 dedicated gaming stations with Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PlayStation and custom-built gaming PCs.
Travelers can choose from nearly 30 titles across casual, multiplayer, streaming and competitive gameplay. Adults ages 30 to 39 now represent the largest gaming demographic in the U.S. That same group also includes many travelers willing to spend on better airport experiences.
Emma said Gameway helped show how travelers respond when airport downtime becomes more interactive.
“Gameway really showed us how much travelers respond to environments that feel interactive and intentional,” Emma told CyberGuy. “When people are traveling, especially during delays or long layovers, they’re looking for ways to decompress and reset instead of just sitting in another generic waiting area.”
That insight helped shape Portal Lounge beyond gaming alone. Emma said the team wanted the space to feel welcoming, energetic and experience-driven while still offering the comfort travelers expect from a premium lounge.
“The gaming and entertainment elements are part of that, but so is the atmosphere, the food and beverage program, the music, and the overall design of the space,” she said.
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Gaming stations inside Portal Lounge let travelers play Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PlayStation and PC games before boarding. (Portal Lounge)
A robot bartender adds airport theater
The robotic bartender will probably get the most attention, and for good reason. Portal Lounge says it is introducing the first robotic bartender of its kind inside a U.S. airport lounge. The robot was developed in Italy and works alongside a traditional bar program. It can prepare cocktails and mocktails while giving travelers something highly visual to watch. That makes it part drink service and part entertainment.
This is where the lounge leans fully into tech-enabled hospitality. The robot does not replace the entire bar experience. Instead, it adds a memorable centerpiece that people will likely record, share and talk about before boarding. In other words, the robot bartender is the hook. The bigger story is how airports are starting to turn waiting into an interactive experience.
How Portal Lounge uses tech beyond the wow factor
“For us, the technology is there to enhance the experience, not overpower it,” Jordan told CyberGuy. “We wanted Portal Lounge to feel modern, social, and experiential in a way that traditional airport lounges really haven’t evolved into yet.”
He said technology touches the full lounge experience, from check-in to entertainment, lighting, music and gaming. “The goal was to create something that feels seamless and immersive from the moment you walk in,” he said.
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Portal Lounge’s robotic bartender works alongside a traditional bar program to prepare cocktails and mocktails for travelers. (Portal Lounge)
Portal Lounge adds food, music and local flavor
Portal Lounge is also trying to move beyond the usual airport food experience. The menu includes chef-driven small plates, regional drinks and cocktails tied to Minnesota. One signature drink, called the “Lag Free,” is a Minnesota-inspired margarita with Honeycrisp apple, maple and citrus notes.
There is also “Prince’s Lemonade,” a zero-proof cocktail inspired by Minnesota music icon Prince. That local touch helps the lounge feel connected to Minneapolis instead of like another airport space that could be anywhere. It also speaks to a bigger travel shift. Many travelers want places that feel memorable, photo-worthy and tied to the city they are passing through.
Why airport lounges are changing
Airport lounges used to be pretty predictable. You got a quieter seat, a snack, Wi-Fi and maybe a drink before your flight. For years, that felt like enough. Now, many travelers want more from the time they spend inside airports. Some lounges are packed. Gate areas can feel chaotic. And when you have an hour or two before boarding, sitting around and staring at a screen gets old fast.
That is where Portal Lounge is trying something different. It operates as an independent common-use lounge instead of an airline-specific club. Travelers can access it through Priority Pass and participating credit card programs, including Chase, American Express and Capital One. Walk-in access is also expected to cost about $70, depending on availability.
That price may make some people pause. For a quick stop before boarding, it may not make sense. But for a long delay, an extended layover or a family with time to burn, the math changes. Portal Lounge is betting that games, food, music and robot-made drinks can make airport waiting feel a lot less like waiting.
Inside Portal Lounge, travelers can relax in a tech-forward social space with seating, lighting, food, drinks and music. (Portal Lounge)
Why MSP makes sense for Portal Lounge
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport gives Portal Lounge a strong place to launch this concept. MSP welcomed about 36 million passengers in 2025, and many of them begin their trips there. That means plenty of travelers arrive early, clear security and still have time before boarding.
That extra time is exactly what Portal Lounge is built around. If you are running to your gate, you are probably not stopping for a gaming session or a robot-made mocktail. But if you have 90 minutes to spare, the pitch changes fast. Suddenly, the airport wait does not have to mean sitting shoulder to shoulder at the gate, guarding your bag and watching the minutes crawl by. Portal Lounge is hoping that travelers with time to kill may want something better to do with it.
What this means for you
Portal Lounge could give airport downtime a much-needed upgrade. If you are flying through MSP, it may offer a more entertaining way to wait. You can play games, grab food, listen to curated music and check out a robotic bartender before your flight.
Emma said the goal is for travelers to feel like the lounge changes the way they experience airport time.”We hope travelers walk away feeling like their time at the airport became part of the trip itself, not just time spent waiting for a flight,” she said. “Portal Lounge was designed to create a more immersive, engaging, and entertainment-driven experience, where guests can genuinely relax, connect, and enjoy themselves in a way that feels very different from a traditional airport lounge.”
That sounds appealing, especially if you are facing a delay or traveling with people who get restless before boarding. Still, the coolest lounge in the airport does not help if you miss your flight. Set an alarm, watch the boarding time and do not let one more game turn into a sprint to the gate.
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Kurt’s key takeaways
Portal Lounge feels like a sign of where airport travel is headed. Travelers no longer want to sit around and stare at a boarding screen for two hours. They want comfort, entertainment and a better use of their time. The robotic bartender will grab attention. But the bigger tech story is the full experience: gaming stations, interactive design, curated music, social seating and a lounge model built around how people actually spend downtime today. Will every traveler want this? Probably not. Some people still want a quiet corner and a strong cup of coffee. But for travelers who see airport time as dead time, Portal Lounge could make the wait feel more useful and a lot more fun.
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Would you pay for a high-tech airport lounge with gaming stations and robot-made drinks, or would you rather save the money and wait at the gate? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.
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The Kane Parsons’ film Backrooms is expected to earn up to $90 million in its opening weekend after pulling down $38 million on Friday alone. That’s not only above expectations, but absolutely obliterates A24’s previous opening weekend record of $25.5 million for Alex Garland’s Civil War. It’s also a better opening day than The Mandalorian and Grogu, which only pulled down $33.7 million on its way to a total $81.6 million for the weekend.
That also means that Backrooms is an incredibly profitable movie, with an estimated $10 million budget. By comparison, the latest Star Wars disappointment cost $165 million and was considered affordable compared to other entries in the series.
While Backrooms hasn’t received quite as much universal praise as fellow low-budget horror breakout Obsession, it’s still largely getting positive reviews. It also adds to the growing number of YouTube creators (including Obsession’s Curry Barker) who have proven to be successful box office draws.
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